Message Board Etiquette

[MikeInClifton]

Looks look at two educational posts from the "Nervous?" thread on the basketball board.

You either missed his point or you conveniently ignore his point. His point was, the current is the upcoming RECRUITING CLASS. Not last year. Everyone said that last year was going to be a throwaway year because we were weeding out the JUCOs that were emergency players. It's stupid for you to say that people are saying they are settling for .5000 and the CBI. You know that's not true. As for the future being up for debate, everybody's future is up for debate. The only pressure these kids will have to handle are people like you who are always doubting them and their coach instead of giving them time to rebuild the program.

and the reply -

You need to layoff. No reason to attack me personally. People like me? Always doubting? C'mon rosey.

Now the above is a good example of how NOT to reply to a post. CatsClaw replied to a previous note and Cpaw instantly took it personally, and I can see why.

The combination of using the word "you" and "stupid" in the same sentence instantly escalates this into something personal, regardless of CatsClaw's intent to make it personal or not. In addition, the word "you" is used five times overall driving home the 'personal' aspect.

When the word "you" is used, it changes the 'direction' of the speakers words to the writer. (Does that make sense?) Think about it and it probably will.

CatsClaw should have
- skipped the his first sentence (redundant when looking at the rest of the reply)
- Instead of saying " It's stupid for you to say that people are saying they are settling for .5000 and the CBI." it could have been written as: I disagree with people saying they are settling for .5000 and the CBI.
- Instead of "You know that's not true." it should have read "I dont think thats true".
- in the last sentence, remove the phrase "like you" and that sentence retains its message, but removes the word 'you'.

IMO, all of these changes do not diminish a bit from the message he was wanting to impart.

Folks - if the word "you" is not used in a reply, the chances of the post being taken personally is slim to none. That way we can get on with the intelligent discussion that should be taking place here.

CatsClaw - thanks for this opportunity to do some admin-ing.

[Irishbearcat]

Thank YOU for posting THIS.